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Going From Nano EBIAB (eg. Co. Brewing) to 10BBL+ 3 Vessel. Issues?

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  • Going From Nano EBIAB (eg. Co. Brewing) to 10BBL+ 3 Vessel. Issues?

    Has anyone who started off on a 1 or 2BBL EBIAB setup like Colorado Brewing find it difficult to switch to a 3 vessel system when upgrading the brewhouse? I am concerned that recipes might not scale/translate right from BIAB to a 3 or 4 vessel setup. I started BIAB with home brew but quickly switched to MT,HLT,BK setup. I can't recall if my issues back then were more recipe adjustments or just learning the new hardware. Am I overthinking this concern of? I imagine there will be so many other changes with scaling up that recipe adjustments will be minor concern. Guess I am looking for a sanity check.

    I am in the planning phase of opening a nano brewery for 9-18months before a planned expansion (if everything goes right, the space is all ours) to a larger 10BBL + operation. We don't want to spend too much for the nano phase, but we also don't want to set ourselves up for failure, fatigue or both. Originally I was lookin to start with an electric 3 vessel 1BBL HERMS or RIMS system like Spike or Blichmann. However, reading the horror stories of non stop brewing at the 1BBL amount, I started to look at bigger systems. Unfortunately 3BBL is too pricey. But then I started looking at Colorado Brewing setups and I could get the 2BBL setup for cheaper than the Spike or Blichmann 1BBL. My only concerns are mentioned above.

  • #2
    Having grown from a cobbled-together 3bbl brewhouse to a 15bbl production system (I don't have any BIAB experience), I can offer another possible perspective: Rather than asking yourself how you will keep your recipes consistent when you grow you can also choose to ask how your beers will be better because you grow into that new, more robust equipment. Sure, you will do what you need to do to get the brewery open and off the ground, but when the time comes to significantly grow you should be excited about all of the new control points you will have available to you that may not be available at the nano scale. For us, we went from pre-milled malt to in-house milling, gas to steam, fermentation cabinets to glycol-cooled tanks, dumping yeast in the top of plastic fermenters to a fully closed, inline setup, and many other improvements. As a result we have much more control over many more quality points than we ever could have at the 3bbl scale. We didn't want to keep our beers the same. We wanted to make them better.

    I know this doesn't address the question regarding your initial equipment purchase but may be helpful as you contemplate the growth that will hopefully occur after that.

    Cheers,
    Tom

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    • #3
      Originally posted by BemidjiBrewing View Post
      Having grown from a cobbled-together 3bbl brewhouse to a 15bbl production system (I don't have any BIAB experience), I can offer another possible perspective: Rather than asking yourself how you will keep your recipes consistent when you grow you can also choose to ask how your beers will be better because you grow into that new, more robust equipment. Sure, you will do what you need to do to get the brewery open and off the ground, but when the time comes to significantly grow you should be excited about all of the new control points you will have available to you that may not be available at the nano scale. For us, we went from pre-milled malt to in-house milling, gas to steam, fermentation cabinets to glycol-cooled tanks, dumping yeast in the top of plastic fermenters to a fully closed, inline setup, and many other improvements. As a result we have much more control over many more quality points than we ever could have at the 3bbl scale. We didn't want to keep our beers the same. We wanted to make them better.

      I know this doesn't address the question regarding your initial equipment purchase but may be helpful as you contemplate the growth that will hopefully occur after that.

      Cheers,
      Tom
      Thanks, that is actually the kind of perspective I was looking for. With no intent to distribute even after scale up, I guess it doesn’t make sense to fret about recipe preservation. Thanks again for the feedback, going to maximize production for our budget without cutting critical corners... which only leaves plastic v. SS for FVs but I know that is a whole other thread here. Hahha.

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